Ministry official says no additional COVID-19 isolation facilities needed

Oct 16, 2020 News

Despite airports’ reopening…

Local airports have been reopened to commercial traffic.

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health (MOH) has assured that there will be no need for additional facilities to isolate COVID-19 patients in light of the recent reopening of the country’s airports to commercial traffic.
Concerns have been raised regarding the airports’ reopening and the chances of Guyana having an influx of COVID-19 cases. Among the concerns too was whether the Ministry had the capacity to offer additional institutional isolation care to infected incoming passengers. Also highlighted was the number of patients currently in home isolation. That number currently exceeds 800.
But a Ministry spokesman told Kaieteur News yesterday that there will be no need for additional institutional isolation provisions since adequate measures are in place to monitor those coming in. The official also assured that there is currently sufficient management of isolation spaces.
It was also announced earlier that there is a protocol in place whereby incoming passengers are required to take a second Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test in Guyana if a first test that was taken in their country of origin has exceeded 72 hours. Passengers are required to take a PCR test in their country of origin at least seven days leading up to their flight.
Once the passenger arrives in Guyana with a PCR test that exceeds 72 hours, a second PCR test will be conducted at the airport and will receive the results in a reasonable time. Persons who test positive will be isolated at the Liliendaal Infectious Disease Hospital also known as the Ocean View COVID-19 hospital, according to the spokesman.
He stated that the Ocean View Hospital currently can house a number of isolation patients but since most incoming passengers are producing PCR test results that were conducted 72 hours and under- before their flight, the chances of a high influx of cases, which will require isolation, is unlikely.
However, the spokesman said that if there is a trend in incoming COVID-19 cases, efficient accommodations will be made available to address the situation.
Currently, institutional isolation is being offered at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the Ocean View Hospital.
According to a GPHC official, most of the patients at the Ocean View Hospital are patients who had previously required critical care in the GPHC’s COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but have started to recover. Based on reports from the Ministry, on Tuesday only 15 persons were being housed at the Ocean View Hospital.
The Ministry, it was revealed, is also actively procuring equipment as works on the facility continues which will eventually provide accommodation for a significantly large number of patients, if needed.

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